Chat rooms and chat sessions on the Internet are concepts that are generally well understood and used by many people. Chat rooms are typically provided through a web site, a portion of a web site or as an online service provided by an Internet service provider (ISP) such as America Online. A chat room provides a venue for communities of users with a common interest to communicate in real time. In contrast, forums and discussion groups allow users to post messages, but do not have the ability to provide interactive messaging.
The use of chat sessions has also be adopted by some organizations (e.g., merchants, political organizations, etc.) operating web sites as a means of increasing the impact of a web site. Typically, the web site provides one or more web pages touting the benefits of the organization. On one of the web pages a softkey may be provided with the label “chat with us”.
If a user (e.g., a customer) activates the softkey, the customer is placed into contact with an agent of the organization for a private chat session. Once placed into contact with an agent, the customer may ask questions and receive specific answers to those questions, usually through the exchange of short text messages.
While the concept of private chat sessions works well, the agent is often hampered by a lack of information about the customer. Because of the lack of information, a simple, albeit ambiguous, question from a customer may elicit an improper response, leading to the creation of a negative impression in the mind of the customer. Because of the importance of the Internet and the promotion of organizational activities, a need exists for a better method of interacting with customers.